Columbia Martial Arts Center

Shifu Shannon Moore is Great! The Moves of his style are Great! The Principles that guide his actions are perfect.

Sifu Shannon Moore is a great teacher. If you want to learn solid, practical martial arts I highly recommend Columbia Martial Arts Center.

This place is a gem, a rare one. I suspect it is the best martial arts school within 300 miles, and is, in my best judgement, _the_ place to go to develop the best real self-defense skills possible. Sifu Moore is remarkable. He knows his stuff extremely well and has a determined desire for his students to succeed, regularly staying well beyond scheduled class time to give his student maximal opportunity to learn, for example. Don't let his size mislead you. I'll also note that, at least in my experience, reaching the school via phone or email, from the information available online, was tough. (I recommend stopping by 6:30-8:30 M-Th if you can't reach anyone. You go up the stairs on the left side of the building.) Sifu Moore is not is an ambitious businessman with impeccable business practices including reachability from the publicly available contact info. (This is a great thing, in my opinion! We have enough ultra professional organizations in Columbia with flashy websites, shiny facilities, customer service people who always address you by Mr. or Ms., and are great at making a sale with a beautiful _show_.) What Sifu Moore is, is a genuine, incredible Kung Fu martial artist and teacher - the best in my judgment. He's also a sincere good person with a messy office and personal character. (And he is very easy to reach once you have his direct contact info.) His teaching focuses purely on practical, not show. He insists on his students understanding principle rather than memorization, and understands that real life is dynamic, not a drill where you memorize or react to a pattern, and his teaching constantly reflects this. He has a great ability to see every detail that is wrong with a technique and correct and hone that technique. The school also has a feel a bit like family, created by both the other students and Sifu Moore and Sifu Song (who is also incredible). I wish I could be back.

Amazing teacher. Come here if you want to learn real martial arts. Im so glad I found this place... Ive been so frusterated with all the mcdojos just selling black belts... But this place is the REAL deal. I wish i could give more than 5 stars.

Excellent trainers.